1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to communication and, in particular, to methods, systems and program products for communication via a wireless communication network. Still more particularly, the present invention is related to methods, systems and program products for indicating the supported concurrent service capability in communication between a mobile station and a base station in a wireless communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the adoption of new digital technologies, over-the-air radio frequency (RF) communication provides an ever increasing number of voice and data services to users of mobile stations, such as digital pagers and mobile telephones. In order to permit interoperability of mobile stations between networks, standards organizations have promulgated a number of specifications to define required features and behaviors of access networks, core networks and network devices providing over-the-air RF communication. For example, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) defines a number of specifications for communications employing the 3rd generation (3G) Code Division Multiple Access (cdma2000) protocols, which support wireless voice and data services.
Among the many specifications promulgated by 3GPP2, is C.S0005-D v1.0 (TIA-2000.5-D), entitled “Upper Layer (Layer 3) Signaling Standard for cdma2000 Spread Spectrum Systems Release D,” which is dated February 2004, is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, and hereinafter referred to as the “Standard.” As indicated by its title, the Standard specifies the signaling protocols and messaging format of network layer (Layer 3) communication in a cdma2000-compliant communication network.
Of note in the Standard is the support for concurrent data and voice communication over-the-air between a base station and a mobile station in a cdma2000-compliant communication network. This so-called “concurrent service capability,” which has been included within cdma2000 standards since the adoption of TIA IS-2000-A in July 2001, is supported through the inclusion within mobile station and base station data stores (and in messaging between a mobile station and base station) of a CS_SUPPORTED field that indicates base station and mobile station concurrent service capability. For example, the 1-bit CS_SUPPORTED field can be included in the mobile station's Capability Information record to indicate the mobile station's concurrent service capability. This same CS_SUPPORTED field can also be included in an Extended Systems Parameter Message (ESPM), ANSI-41 System Parameters Message (AS41SPM), Universal Handoff Direction Message (UHDM), General Handoff Direction Message (GHDM) or In-Traffic System Parameters Message (ITSPM) to indicate a base station's concurrent service capability. If the CS_SUPPORTED field is set to ‘1’, concurrent service is supported by the network entity, and if the CS_SUPPORTED field is set to ‘0’, concurrent service is not supported by the network entity.
The present invention recognizes, however, that the CS_SUPPORTED field imprecisely indicates support for concurrent services, raising several ambiguities about the capabilities of the network entity (i.e., base station or mobile station) providing the CS_SUPPORTED field. For example, a CS_SUPPORTED field set to “1” does not indicate:                1. Whether or not the network entity supports concurrent voice and packet data services or multiple concurrent data services only;        2. The number of concurrent services the network entity can support; or        3. The number of simultaneous packet data services the network entity can support.        
These ambiguities are significant because supporting concurrent voice and data communication is more complicated, and hence more expensive, than supporting multiple concurrent packet data services. Consequently, to reduce cost, some base stations or mobile stations may choose to support only concurrent packet data services, but not concurrent voice and packet data services. As a result, if a base station does not support concurrent voice and data and has the CS_SUPPORTED field set to ‘1’ to indicate the support of concurrent services, a mobile station, without knowing the true capability of the base station, may request a voice call connection in addition to its active data session. This request will fail because the base station does not support this capability, resulting in unnecessary utilization of airlink resources.
The present invention recognizes that it would be useful and desirable to reduce or eliminate such needless utilization of airlink resources by promoting more precise communication of concurrent services capabilities.